LONDON — British Airways has come under fire from its own pilots for turning itself into a “laughing stock” over the cancellation and delay of hundreds of flights and the loss of thousands of pieces of luggage in nearly two weeks of chaos at its new London terminal.
The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) said BA”s Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport, planned as a masterpiece of 21st-century technology, instead has become a source of “acute embarrassment” over a string of woes ranging from a faulty baggage-handling system to the reaction to the worst April snowfall in 19 years.
The $8.4 billion Terminal 5, its massive hall a paragon of technology, was eerily quiet yesterday even as hundreds of would-be passengers milled about, seeking alternative flying arrangements after 34 more flights were canceled — the fallout from weekend snowstorms that swept the country.
Meanwhile, other veterans of the Terminal 5 experience were still awaiting discovery or delivery of tens of thousands of suitcases and other items of luggage, some scattered across Heathrow airport, others in temporary storage at lockups as far away as Italy.
It was all too much for BALPA, whose 3,000 pilots are already planning a strike, tentatively set for June, in its fight with British Airways” management over pay and working conditions. BALPA General Secretary Jim McAuslan wrote a furious open letter that was widely published yesterday.
In the letter, Mr. McAuslan told banks, investors and analysts that “there is something very wrong right at the heart of the company that is making our once great [British Airways] brand a laughing stock.”
The pilots also demanded the resignation of the airline’s chief executive, Willie Walsh, who has been under fire over Terminal 5 since its opening March 27 — but has largely remained out of sight.
Of the airline chief, Mr. McAuslan told journalists, “We want confidence in our leadership, not arrogance.”
Practically from the moment Terminal 5 opened, Mr. Walsh”s prediction that it would all go perfectly swiftly changed into “I take responsibility for what happened,” and “the buck stops with me.”
By the end of the first four days, more than 200 flights had been canceled because of technical problems with the automated baggage-handling system, coupled with a lack of training in using it. The baggage began stacking higher and higher, at times virtually forcing the whole system to a halt.
Before too long, the backlog had mounted to an estimated 28,000 bags.
“We were having to manually reconcile bags for each flight, which takes considerably more time than using the automated system,” a BA spokesman said.
At one point, misplaced luggage was sent to holding centers in Scotland, Italy and elsewhere to be sorted out while BA fought to get Terminal 5 to work properly.
Then came Britain”s heaviest April snowfall since 1989 last weekend, forcing cancellation of 242 more flights on Saturday, 126 on Sunday and at least 34 more by shortly after noon yesterday.
Even before the snow, British Airways had estimated the whole Terminal 5 “debacle,” as one pilot described it, had cost it at least $32 million, and rising.
That may be well short of the end of it. Analysts at one of London”s leading financial institutions, Deutsche Bank, predicted that Terminal 5”s problems would last well into the summer and end up costing about $300 million.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.